Dr Marike van Aerde is Assistant Professor in the World Archaeology department. Her research focuses on trade routes and exchange networks spanning from ancient Egypt to the 1st-millennium Indian Ocean. Her work includes ceramics and glass analyses, petroglyphic documentation, and methodological applications of Network Theory.

More information about Marike van Aerde

Office days

Monday to Thursday

Research

Dr Marike van Aerde’s research focuses on ancient trade routes and exchange networks, spanning from ancient Egypt to the Indian Ocean area in the 1^st millennium CE. Her work includes ceramics and glass analyses, petroglyphic documentation, distribution analyses, and methodological applications of Network Theory. Collaborating with international PhDs and MAs, her archaeological studies make use of scientific methods such as chemical analyses, GIS, database analyses and AI tools. Rooted in data analysis, the project asks wider questions of transregional exchange processes and how they evolved from the ancient world into the 1^st millennium, as well as conceptual methodological questions concerning interdisciplinarity and epistemology.

Recent publications have included studies on Indian Ocean networks, ceramics analyses, Egyptian, Aksumite, and Indian ports, and the documentation and preservation of rock art from the Karakorum mountain range in the Himalayas. Marike appears regularly at international conferences, and actively pursues Open Access and international Heritage initiatives.

Curriculum vitae

In 2021, Marike was appointed Assistant Professor at Leiden University. In 2021, she set up heritage rescue fieldwork in the Karakorum mountains of Pakistan together with Prince Claus Grant awardee Abdul Ghani Khan. She is associated with the Honours Academy of Leiden University, where she explores how archaeological research can contribute to current societal themes and issues. She is a recurring lecturer for the Leiden Leadership Programme (LLP) since 2022. In 2019, she was awarded the LeidenGlobal seed grant for her research project, and between 2017-19 she held the Postdoctoral Byvanck Fellowship at Leiden University, which included an interdisciplinary teaching program.

Marike’s PhD (defended 2015) examined archaeological evidence of various exchange processes between Egypt and Rome. Fieldwork included campaigns at the Palatine Hill in Rome and material analyses in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma, the Royal Dutch Institute in Rome (KNIR), and The British Museum in London. Aside from her archaeological studies, Marike also holds a (cum laude) MA degree in Classics from Radboud University (2005), and was awarded the Graduate School Research Scholarship from University College London (UCL, 2005-2008).

Publications